Learning Styles and Learning Music
When you finish reading this sentence, close your eyes and mentally practice a section of your favorite harp piece, without moving, humming or looking at the score. Now that you're back, answer the following questions: Did you imagine your arms moving up and down the harp from one register to the next? Did you imagine the feel of the strings under your fingers? Did you imagine the harp sounding just the way you wanted it to? Did you imagine the look of your hands on the harp strings? Of course, you may have done several or all of these things, but which one was the primary experience? Learning Styles and Learning Music: What's Your Style?If you mostly "felt" your arms moving up and down the harp, your primary learning style is kinesthetic. You learn best by doing, and you probably love movement and dance. At a harp lesson, you usually start trying to play a new pattern before your teacher is even done demonstrating or explaining it. You don’t mind repeating things to learn them, but once things are “in your hands” you have extra trouble changing them.If you mostly "felt" the strings under your fingers, your primary learning modality is tactile. Tactile is similar to kinesthetic, but instead of being focused on the whole body, you are very focused on your fingertips and the textures they experience. You probably love making things and you use your hands very expressively. You might be overly sensitive to touch. You play by “feel”, like the kinesthetic learner, and share many other similarities. If you mostly "heard" the sound of the harp, you are primarily an auditory learner. You love listening to music and are more comfortable playing by ear than many of your harp friends. Sometimes, you talk to yourself or try to convince your hands to behave. You’d rather guess at notes than figure them out and like making changes that you think sound better. You like “picking out” songs you know and can usually fake your way through things. If you mostly "saw" your hands on the strings, your primary learning style is visual. While you love color and pictures, you might still struggle with sight reading because you have a hard time “hearing” what the piece should sound like while looking at the score. You might not play as expressively as you’d like, or be able to sing the melody of the piece you’re learning. You also resist paying attention to fingering, though you like working through a piece methodically. You like learning from scores, worksheets, software, and books, especially if they are pretty to look at. You tend to ignore your body and your ears unless reminded to pay attention. Learning Styles and Learning Music: How Can Your Style Help You?Whether you have one or several preferred learning styles, and no matter what your primary learning style is, you can use this knowledge as a starting place to unlock your musical learning. To be the best musician you can be, you need all your senses. To develop the less familiar modalities, it helps to start with the learning style that is easiest for you and build from there.We need our whole brains to create music well--that's why studies show that making music fosters brain agility and slows down aging. Luckily, we have our analytical faculty to help us figure out how to make learning music at the harp as easy and fulfilling as possible. Here are some strategies for each learning style, building on its strengths and overcoming its weaknesses. Learning Styles and Learning Music: Kinesthetic & Tactile LearnersFor kinesthetic learners, it can be helpful to have the teacher actually guide your hands. Your instinct to try is a good one; the teacher can monitor what you’re doing and guide and correct you until you have the right idea. Ask your teacher to help you clap or move the rhythm that’s hard for you to “get”. Use ghosting and blocking to learn your brackets. Make sure you know what the desired technique should FEEL like. Take a lot of breaks to move and stretch, right when your brain starts to feel “foggy.”You can especially benefit from using a chord and pattern approach to playing or improvising, and you might find inspiration watching or participating in dance. Use physical objects, like chord wheels, flashcards, and rhythm pie charts, to manipulate while you learn. Better yet, make your own! Write out music concepts, draw and color code because the physicality of these activities will help you learn much faster. If you can, take your own lesson notes, or rewrite or expand on them later. To build your other senses, try practicing mentally, which has no kinesthetic component (the exercise on this page just had you doing that). Also, as you play, watch your arms moving and deliberately invoke the other senses: what do the strings feel like under my fingers? what does this passage sound like when I move my arms this way? what does it look like? After you’ve memorized your music, go back and study the score to see what else you might have missed. Try hearing the piece in your head, without playing it. Follow the suggestions below for tactile learners, as they will also help you. If you are a tactile learner, feel your fingers open, place, and close. Make sure that you know what your fingers should FEEL when your technique is working. Next, keep that awareness but notice the larger movements of your arms “on the track” up and down the harp. You still feel your fingers, but your awareness has grown to include more of your body. Again, deliberately invoke your other senses. The suggestions for kinesthetic learners also apply to you. Keep noticing your fingers, but practice looking ahead in your music as you do so, and practice listening to every note and every silence. Try hearing the piece in your head, without playing it. Learning Styles and Learning Music: Auditory LearnersIf your primary learning style is auditory, record your lessons, or at least the pieces that you’re working on. Restate what you’re learning out loud (“my fingers are opening and closing every time,” or “my fingers need to be low on the strings and pointing down.”). Pay attention to how the technique should SOUND and ask for help until you do.Listen to music all of the time, especially harp music. Consider using solfege (the do re mi system), and certainly make use of humming or singing to help you learn. Listen for familiar patterns (scale fragments, triads, rhythms). Use the patterns to create your own improvisation. You can also create a story or lyrics for your piece. Mnemonics and rhymes are great tools for learning, as are clapping or tapping rhythms. If you use flashcards or computer note-learning software, be sure to say your answers out loud. If you can, take your own lesson notes, or rewrite or expand on them after your lesson. You might also invoke your teacher’s voice as you practice, describing the technique you're practicing. Use recordings of other instruments or sounds from nature as inspiration for improvisation. Use sound to help you with the other modalities. How does the sound change as you change your hand position? What does your hand look like when the sound is rich and full? You know what the interval of a third sounds like, now can you find them in your score and practice seeing them on the strings? How about those new rhythms--how are they written? Learning Styles and Learning Music: Visual LearnersIf you are a visual learner, ask your teacher to demonstrate anything new or difficult for you so you can see what it looks like. Ask if you can videotape your lessons, and purchase the video that goes with your instruction book, if there is one.To improve your sight-reading, look at the shape the patterns or phrases make in the score, and find the ones that repeat. Mark your music with highlighter tape (it comes off later) or colored pencils to help turn patterns, structure and practice spots into landmarks. Use aids like flashcards and rhythm charts to see musical relationships. (Make sure they’re appealing and colorful). Map out new concepts in music theory. Make a drawing of your piece to help you play expressively and to memorize it. Image-based computer software and image-rich internet resources are also helpful. Use photographs and scenes from nature as inspiration for improvisation. To build a bridge to your other senses, as you watch your hands on the harp, listen to the sounds you are making and feel the touch of the strings. To develop your ear, sing the melody of your piece, without looking at the score or the harp. Learning Styles and Learning Music: Tips for EveryoneWhen learning something new, start with the learning style that works best for you, and then work out to your weakest style. For example, if you are learning to recognize and play a new interval, and your primary learning style is visual, start with the notation or the shape on the harp strings. If you’re auditory, start with the sound of the notes. If you’re kinesthetic or tactile, start with the hand form and how it feels on the strings.Move next to your second strongest modality, and then to your weakest. If you’re working with rhythm and you’re visual, be sure you have a notation graphic (like rhythm flashcards) in front of you first. If you’re auditory, listen to the rhythm while counting out loud first (ask your teacher to play it or record it). If you’re kinesthetic, try clapping the beat and moving your body to the rhythm. A few last tips for all harpers . . . ~ Pick music you love, or you simply won’t care about expressing it well. Finally, try this: go back to the exercise at the beginning of this page. This time, as you imagine playing your piece, deliberately bring in ALL the senses. Practicing this way will help you learn more easily and play more expressively, no matter which learning style you prefer. Now it's Your Turn!Do you have an idea, story or tip about this topic? Share it! What Other Visitors Have SaidClick below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
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